IPMAT Indore 2022 · Verbal Ability · Question 23

The word being tested: spot, across its senses.

(a) “a scenic spot” ✔ — a place or location.

(c) “his answer was spot on” ✔ — the idiom meaning exactly right.

(d) “a spot of ink on her collar” ✔ — a small mark or stain.

(b) “Such a spot on his career…” ✘

Why (b) fails. A spot is a literal mark on a physical surface. For a blemish on a reputation or record, English uses blot — “a blot on his career”, “a blot on his copybook”. Spot is not used figuratively this way.

The intended sense is clearly a stain on his professional record, since it affected promotion decisions — so the word required is blot.

Answer: Option 2

Shortcut. Ask which option uses the word figuratively, then check whether that figure exists. Here (b) is the only metaphorical use of spot, and the figurative term for a damaged record is blot, not spot.

The near-pair to fix: spot = a place, a mark, or “exactly right” (spot on); blot = a stain, literal or on a reputation.

Note that option (c) may look unfamiliar — spot on is British idiom for “precisely correct”. As in other papers in this series, an unfamiliar but genuine usage is placed deliberately to look like the error. Verify by meaning, not by recognition.